The Montreal Canadiens announced they have called up goaltender Cayden Primeau. The 23 year old was a seventh-round pick of the Canadiens in 2017, and has split time between the NHL and AHL for the past four seasons after a stellar college career at Northeastern.
Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports added Primeau will join the team in Philadelphia tomorrow and should get the start against the Flyers. It will be Primeau’s second NHL game of this season, though he has played 19 games with the Canadiens to this point in his career.
Primeau has played 35 games for the Laval Rocket in the AHL this season, posting a 3.13 GAA and a .906 SV% along with a 14-14-6 record. In his previous NHL stints, Primeau has put up a 3-10-2 record with a GAA of 4.19 and a .873 SV%, mostly behind Canadiens teams that were struggling mightily.
This recall comes at an odd time as the Canadiens are playing tonight with Jake Allen starting and Sam Montembeault backing him up. Both are healthy, which would mean Primeau is not being called up on an emergency basis, but is a standard recall.
The Canadiens must just want to get a look at their prospect late in the season. They are currently 28th overall in the NHL standings with ten games to play. Now is the time to give a few young players a chance to show what they can do at the highest level.